EQ+2.+Hall+portfolio

Meditation 2:

We know that the home language plays a huge role in children’s linguistic development, and that this can come into conflict with the secondary discourse they must participate in at school, affecting their ability to learn. But the differences that cause these struggles are not merely linguistic. There is also the question of how students’ understand themselves as language users. To bridge the gap between home and school literacies, not only the formal differences in structure of language must be addressed, but also the various contexts in which language functions.

I was really happy to learn more about code switching during this course because it explicitly addresses language usage //in context//. When a student practices code switching they learn to make distinctions between different formal patterns of usage like, for example, the difference between a text message and an email, but only within the framework of distinct contexts for the usage. This strategy helps to make these distinctions transparent to students. The explicit framing of contexts gives students access to structures with which they can organize the experiences and knowledge that they already have, and which will enable them to better navigate their usage of language in the future.

As noted, code-switching shows students that they already know a lot about using language, and that they have a good command of many different discourses. In this way it works to affirm the students’ prior experiences. In the effort to help students form this bridge between home and school literacies, their educators must always be conscious of the attitudes they convey toward a students home literacy. By the time I met my students, they had been in the system for almost 10 years, and many of them firmly held the conviction that school was not for them, that they did not like school, that they were dumb, and that they could not succeed. I was baffled trying to figure out what on earth their teachers had been doing wrong, and what I could do to change their attitudes toward learning.

It’s possible that all of these demoralized students had encountered educators who blatantly degraded their ability, but more likely they suffered from the effects that implicit messages have over time. Poor grades or test scores, teachers’ minor frustrations, and the expectations that their peers and society at large have for them – all of these seemingly small instances send a clear message, like a self-fulfilling prophecy, to the students about their role in relation to school and academic success. However, if all stake holders are convinced of a students potential, these high expectations can have the exact opposite effect, imbuing the student with confidence and motivation.

Beyond affirming student success, educators need to provide students with a curriculum which will set them up to succeed. In no way does this mean dumbing down lessons, but it does mean starting with what the students know, and building from there**.** I was honestly shocked when I first began analyzing student writing this year. The right thing to do in response to this was not to ignore these gaps and count them as failures, but to cater my instruction specifically to their needs and gaps in knowledge or skills. Students are also not likely to be engaged by or succeed with a curriculum which they feel is irrelevant to their cultures, interests, and pursuits. Even a text as remote as Romeo and Juliet can become riveting when it is framed within lessons which also allow students to see and work from the connections they can make with the text, its themes or its poetry. Students need connections or points of entry in order to feel comfortable in the classroom. The students should feel safe to take risks within the classroom, and the teacher should, especially with students who “hate reading,” strive to give them opportunities to work and succeed with new literacies.

Artifacts: